■ 



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HISTORICAL NOTICE, 

SfC. 






nW 



194* 



CONDENSED 

HISTORICAL NOTICE 

or THE 

LANGUAGES 

OF THE 

SLAVIC NATIONS. 

BY 

J. S. C. DE RADIUS, 
w 

A NATIVE OF SOUTHERN RUSSIA. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 

BY 

WILSON AND OGILVY, 57, SKINNER STREET. 
1853. 



P&57 
.F?3 



19 wi«s ¥*. 



fist of JMramtars. 



The following Ladies and Gentlemen have been 'pleased 
to retain Copies after 'perusal: — 

COPIES. 

Her Grace the Duchess of St. Albans 1 

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The Countess Delawarr 1 

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The Countess of Hardwicke 1 

The Countess of Seafield 1 

The Dowager Countess of Falmouth 1 

The Countess of Zetland 1 

The Countess Manvers 1 

The Baroness Bassett 1 

Lady Emily Henry 1 

Lady A. Gordon Hallyburton 1 

Mrs. Colonel Hall, South Audley Street 1 

Mrs. G. Carr Glyn 1 



LfST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

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LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

COPIES. 

Vice-Chancellor Sir W. P. Wood 1 

Sir Robert Abercromby, Bart. 1 

Sir R. Shafto Adair, Bart 1 

Sir G-. T. Staunton 1 

The Right Hon. J. C. Hemes, M.P 1 

The Right Hon. C. Shaw Lefevre, M.P 1 

Sir Thomas I), Acland, Bart. M.P 1 

Sir James Clark, Bart. M.D 1 

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Admiral Meynell 1 

Colonel B. Elphinst one 1 

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William J. Evelyn, Esq. M.P 1 

Henry Drummond, Esq. M.P 1 

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PREFACE. 



With the view to initiate the reader into the 
general plan of this unpretending volume, it 
becomes necessary to mention that throughout 
the whole, one purpose has been kept in view, 
namely: — to give a condensed historical account 
of the Slavonic languages, excluding all matter 
not bearing upon the subject. 

The struggles, combats, and various events, 
which at one time or another have attracted 



VI PREFACE. 

the attention of other countries to the Slavic 
nations, appertain to a different branch of 
History, and have here been noticed only, 
when they exercised a certain influence on the 
Slavic languages. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 1 

Russian Branch 6 

Illyrico-Servian Branch 7 

Czeko-Slovakian Branch 9 

Polish Branch 9 

Sorabian-Vendish Branch 10 

Notice of the Old Church Slavic Language 14 

The Russian Language 18 

Notice of the Illyrico-Servian Language 38 

Notice of the Bulgarian Language 41 

Notice of the Czekish or Bohemian Language 43 

Notice of the Language of the Slovaks 53 

Notice of the Polish Language 55 



INTRODUCTION. 



Considering that nearly seventy millions of the 
inhabitants of the globe speak the same lan- 
guage, or at least dialects derived from a com- 
mon source, it becomes a matter of surprise, as 
well as of regret, that their early history should 
be involved in an obscureness which the most 
diligent researches have not been able to eluci- 
date. The analogy between the language of the 
Slavic nations and the Sanscrit, seems to indi- 
cate their origin from India ; but to ascertain 
the time when they first entered Europe, is now 
no longer possible. This event, in all proba- 
bility, took place seven or eight centuries before 
the Christian era, on account of the over- 
population of the regions of the Ganges. He- 
rodotus mentions a people near the Ister, whose 



Z SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

name resembles that of a tribe now in Russia. 
Several other classical and a few oriental writers 
also allude to the Slavic nations occasionally ; 
the first distinct intelligence, however, is not 
older than the middle of the sixth century. At 
this period they are to be seen traversing the 
Danube in large numbers, and settling on both 
banks of that river. Trom that time,, also, they 
frequently appear in the accounts of the Byzan- 
tine historians under different appellations, 
mostly involved in the wars of the two Roman 
Empires, sometimes as allies, sometimes as con- 
querors; more frequently yet, notwithstanding 
their renowned courage, as vassals, but chiefly 
as emigrants thrust out of their own countries 
by the warlike Teutonic tribes. Prom the very 
nature of this information, it is impossible to 
expect any satisfactory knowledge. There are 
primitive traces of their fondness for music, and 
an early cultivation of the language; still all 
this information is the more imperfect as it is 
collected from foreign authors, their earliest his- 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 6 

torians not beginning to write before the second 
half of the eleventh centurv. At this time the 
Slavic nations were already in possession of the 
whole extent of this vast territory which they 
now occupy. 

In the south, the Adriatic, the range of the 
Balkan, and the Euxine, are their frontiers ; the 
coasts of the Icy Ocean in the north. Their 
still greater extent in an eastern and western 
direction, reaches from Kamtschatka and the 
Russian Islands of the Pacific, where many of 
their vestiges exist among scattered tribes, as 
far as the Baltic, and along the banks of the 
rivers Elbe, Muhr, and Raab, again to the 
Adriatic. 

This immense extent greatly adds to the 
difficulties of a general survey of the dif- 
ferent affinities and connections of nations 
broken up into so many parts ; but a review of 
the language is the present object and purpose, 
and not the history of the people; other re- 
marks, therefore, will be introduced here only 



4 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

so much as seem to be requisite for the illus- 
tration of the subject. 

The remotest data for the history of the 
civilization of the Slavic race are to be 
found in their mythology : — and here the oriental 
origin again appears. The belief in a good 
and evil principle is met with among most 
of the tribes ; and even at the present time, 
in some of the Slavic dialects, every thing 
good, beautiful, and praiseworthy, is to them 
synonymous with the purity of the white 
colour. The custom among some, of females 
burning themselves with the corpses of their 
husbands, seems also to have been brought from 
India. There are other features belonging to 
them exclusively, which remind of the poeti- 
cal imagination of the Greeks, such as their 
attributing life to the inanimate objects of na- 
ture—rocks, brooks, and trees; and of peopling 
with supernatural beings the woods and moun- 
tains which surrounded them. The Eusalki of 
the Eussians — nymphs, naiads, and satyrs — are 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 5 

still to be found in many tales and songs of 
several tribes. 

There are no very ancient remains of their 
language, except those words or phrases scat- 
tered through the works of foreign historians, — 
and these mostly perverted by a want of know- 
ing the language themselves. Besides these, 
the names of places, of festivals, still exist, as 
well as some songs of the Russians, Bohemians, 
Servians, and several Slavic tribes, evidently 
belonging to the Pagan period ; but having 
been preserved only by tradition,, their diction 
has been changed in the same proportion as the 
language of ordinary life. It is, however, pro- 
bable that at least one Slavic idiom was culti- 
vated in very ancient times, from the circum- 
stance that Cyril's translation of the Bible, 
written in the middle of the ninth century, bears 
the character of almost perfection ; and thus this 
language must have been the means of expres- 
sion for more cultivated persons several centuries 
prior. 



6 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

Before taking notice of the different branches, 
it becomes necessary to direct the attention to 
the whole great source from which, in the most 
ancient times, the various branches appear to 
have ramified. A vast chaos, indeed, reigns in 
the classification of the Slavic nations : — with the 
view, therefore, to obviate this confusion, two 
divisions, according to certain affinities and dif- 
ferences, have been established, namely, the 
Eastern and Western, although the origin from 
the south is common to all. 



EASTERN STEM. 



RUSSIAN BRANCH. 



1. The Russians of Slavic origin form the 
bulk of the population of the European part of 
Russia. All the middle provinces of this im- 
mense empire are occupied almost exclusively 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 7 

by a nation of purely Slavic extraction; and 
even those scattered through Asiatic Eussia are 
of the same race. To ascertain their exact 
number is exceedingly difficult. The statistical 
tables give the number of the Eussians proper at 
about 40,000,000 ; but it must be remarked, 
that these statistical assertions have met with 
contradiction. 

2. The Eussniacks, or Euthenians, are found 
in Malo-Eussia, the south of Poland, Galicia, 
Eed-Eussia, the Bukovina, and also in the north- 
eastern part of Hungary, scattered over Walla- 
chia and Moldavia. The Kozacks, especially 
the Zaporogueans, belong chiefly to this race, 
while the Kozacks of the Don are more mixed 
with pure Eussians. 

ILLYUICO-SEEVIAN BEANCH. 

The Illyrico-Servians, frequently called Eaitzi, 
comprise the following subdivisions : — 

1. The Servians, between the rivers Timock, 



8 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

Drina, Save, the Danube, and the Balkan 
mountains. 

2. The Bosnians, between Dalmatia, the 
Balkan, and the rivers Drina, Yerbas, and Save. 

3. The Montenegrins, or Slavic inhabitants 
of the Turkish province Albania, among the 
mountains of Montenegro. 

4. The Slavonians, or inhabitants of the Aus- 
trian kingdom of Slavonia and the Duchy of 
Syrmia, between Hungary in the north, and the 
south of Bosnia. 

5. The Dalmatians, between Croatia and 
Albania, likewise belonging to the Austrian 
empire. 

6. The Austrian kingdom of Croatia, divided 
with respect to the language into two parts ; 
one having affinity with the Servians and Dal- 
matians, the other with the Slovenzi of Car- 
niola and Carinthia. 

7. The Slovenzi, or Yindes, comprise the 
Slavic inhabitants of the Duchy of Styria, Ca- 
rinthia, and Carniola. 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 



THE BULGARIAN BRANCH. 



The Bulgarians occupy Turkish provinces 
between the Danube, the Euxine, the Balkan, 
and Servia; this remnant of a once powerful 
nation amounts to about three millions. 



WESTERN STEM. 

CZEKO-SLOVAKIAN BRANCH. 

1. Bohemians and Moravians. Both belong 
to the Austrian empire. 

2. The Slovaks, inhabiting almost all the 
northern part of Hungary, speak different dia- 
lects. 

POLISH BRANCH. 

This comprises the inhabitants of the present 



10 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

kingdom of Poland, of the since 1772 called 
Russian-Polish provinces, the Duchy of Posen, 
Galicia, and Ludomeria. In the Russian pro- 
vinces, formerly called White, Black, and Red 
Russia, and conquered by the Poles in remoter 
times, the peasantry are Russians and Ruthe- 
nians ; in Lithuania, Lettones, an entirely dif- 
ferent race, amongst whom, in some parts, a 
language exists, of which many words bear 
strong resemblance to the ancient Greek. 

SORABIAN-VENDISH BRANCH. 

These are remnants of the old Sorabse and 
several other Slavic races in Lusatia and some 
parts of Brandenburg. 

Besides the races enumerated, Slavic tribes 
are scattered through Germany, Transylvania, 
and Wallachia, — nay, through the whole of 
Turkey; but to ascertain their number is a 
matter of impossibility, and in every respect of 
little consequence. May it suffice to remind 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 11 

the reader of the two great divisions which 
mark the distinction in the Slavic language. 

The almost endless dialects in use among the 
numerous races, must become without interest 
to the reader unacquainted with them; all 
which appears to merit notice is consequently 
the general character and genius of the lan- 
guage. 

The analogy between the Slavic aud the 
Sanscrit consists, indeed, only in the similar 
sound of many words ; but the construction of 
the former is purely European. The Polish 
language is remarkably rich in every kind of 
flexion, not less so in these variations is the 
Kussian. From this it may be concluded of 
what precision, compactness, and energy, a lan- 
guage is capable, which has so little need of cir- 
cumlocution. It is true that in most of the 
Slavic dialects, with the exception of the Ser- 
vian, the consonants predominate; but consi- 
dering that in a language the consonants are the 
indication of ideas, and the vowels subservient 



12 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

to the consonants, the harshness of some of the 
Slavic dialects will appear less than generally 
represented. 

The euphony of single syllables is only par- 
tial; but the harmony of a whole language 
depends on the euphonic sounds of periods, 
words, syllables, and single letters. What lan- 
guage possesses these four elements in equal 
proportion ? Too many vowels sound just as 
unpleasantly as too many consonants ; an inter- 
change of both alone can produce real harmony. 
The pure and distinct vocalization, which does 
not leave it to the choice of the speaker to pro- 
nounce certain vowels or to pass them over, as 
is the case in German, French, and English, 
gives to the Slavic languages the advantage of 
a regular quantity of their syllables. The 
roughness of the Slavic idioms, of which fo- 
reigners have complained so frequently, is ex- 
clusively to be ascribed to inexperienced or 
tasteless writers, or to ridiculous mistakes of 
those unacquainted with the language. No 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 13 

wonder, therefore, if the richness, precision, and 
general perfectibility of the Slavic languages is 
completely marred by existing decided preju- 
dices. 

Erom these introductory remarks the atten- 
tion of the reader is directed to the historical 
part of the languages in use among the princi- 
pal Slavic nations. 



PART I. 

NOTICE OF THE OLD CHURCH SLAVIC LANGUAGE. 

It can hardly be doubted that, in very ancient 
times, the whole Slavic race spoke one language ; 
and if early it has been broken up into several 
dialects, such was the natural result of the wide 
extension of the different races ; but where the 
old Slavic was originally spoken, and which of 
the still living dialects ha^ been immediately 
developed out of it, is a question which has 
caused many animated discussions. Formerly 
the general view was, that the ecclesiastical 
Slavonic must be considered as the root of all 
the living dialects; this, however, has been 
contradicted, and the Church Slavonic proved 
to be an older branch of the original Slavic. 
The circumstance that the language of the Slavic 
Bible was, in Russia until the reign of Peter the 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 1 5 

Great, exclusively the language of books, con- 
firmed the natives for a long time in the belief 
that the Old Eussian and the Church Slavic 
were one and the same language, and that the 
modern Eussian was immediately derived from 
the latter. Be this as it may, the Old Slavic 
has long since become the common property of 
all the Slavic nations ; and after having ceased 
for centuries to be a language of ordinary life, 
it has obviously lost that kind of pliancy and 
facility which only a living language, employed 
to express all the daily wants, can acquire. 
But, on the other hand, it has gained in so- 
lemnity and dignity. Imposing by its very 
sound, it seems to have become almost unfit for 
any trivial use, and only to be devoted to 
serious subjects. The domains of the Old Slavic, 
which seemed at first very great, were soon, by 
the jealousy of the Eomish Church, limited to 
Eussia and Servia ; and in other parts the Sla- 
vonic worship was, after some struggle, sup- 
planted by the Latin. 



16 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

According to inquiries instituted into the Old 
Slavic literature, the history of the Old Slavic 
Church language may be divided into three 
periods. 

The first, from the ninth to the thirteenth 
century ; the second, from the latter to the 
sixteenth century ; and the third, from the six- 
teenth century to the present time, — the last 
period comprising the modern Slavonic of the 
Church books in Eussia and Poland. 

The most ancient documents of the Old Sla- 
vonic language are not older than the eleventh 
century. Besides such, are several inscriptions 
on stones, crosses, and ornaments of equal anti- 
quity. 

The number of monuments of the Old Slavic 
increases considerably in the second period; 
amongst which Nestor's Annals, in the Old 
Slavic language, form the basis of Slavic his- 
tory, and are not without importance for the 
whole history of the middle ages. 

The third period begins with the sixteenth 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 17 

century. In the course of time, and after pass- 
ing through the hands of many ignorant copy- 
ists, the books relating to the Old Slavic Church 
language had in some parts become almost 
unintelligible ; the necessity of a revision was 
therefore strongly felt, and instituted in 151SJ, 
at the request of the Czar Basilius Ivanovitch. 

In modern times considerable attention has 
been devoted to the examination of the old 
Slavic language, and its relations to its affined 
dialects. 



PART II. 
EASTERN STEM. 

THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 

The name of Russia and the Russians is not 
older than the ninth or tenth century. The 
northern part of that vast empire, however, was 
long before inhabited by Slavic nations, who 
seem to have been divided into small states, 
under chiefs chosen by themselves, and most of 
them tributary to more powerful neighbours. 
About the middle of the ninth century civil dis- 
sensions arose among the Slavi of Novogrod, 
menaced at the same time by the conquering 
Varegians, a Scandinavian tribe, they therefore, 
*n 862, chose Rurick, the chief of the Varegians, 
for their own head. Rurick founded thus the 
first Slavo-Russian state, and his followers set- 
tled down among the Slavic inhabitants of the 
country, imparting to them their warlike spirit. 
It is only since that time that the Slavi appear 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 19 

as conquerors; and their empire, as well as their 
power and external influence, rapidly extended. 

Jaroslav, the son of Yladimir the Great, at 
the beginning of the eleventh century, on his 
death-bed divided his empire among his sons. 
Owing to dissensions which followed, the Mon- 
gols broke into the country, and easily subdued 
the Russians, and succeeded, in 1237, to make 
them tributary for 200 years. 

In the middle of the fifteenth century, Ivan 
Vasilievitch III. delivered his country from the 
Asiatic invaders, conquered his Russian rivals, 
and united Novgorod with his own princedom 
of Moscow. Prom that period the power and 
welfare of Russia have increased without inter- 
ruption, and rapidly, to the present time. The 
literary cultivation of its inhabitants has like- 
wise advanced. 

The history of Russian literature has five dis- 
tinct periods. The first comprises an interval 
of more than nine centuries, from the date of 
the first knowledge of the Russian Slavi, to the 



20 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

coming of age of Peter the Great, in 1689. 
This long period would easily admit of subdivi- 
sions ; but it is so very sterile, that a few words 
will suffice to give a general survey. 

The second period extends from the coming 
of age of Peter the Great to the accession of 
Elizabeth his daughter, in 1741. 

The third period may be considered to begin 
with Lomonosoff to Karamzin. 

The fourth embraces the interval from Ka- 
ramzin to the accession of the Emperor Nicholas, 
in 1825. 

The fifth, from the Emperor Nicholas to the 
present time. 

Before proceeding, a few words relating to 
the characteristic features of the Russian lan- 
guage appear to be necessary. 

The principal dialects are : — 

1. The Russian proper, the true literary lan- 
guage of the whole Russian nation : and here it 
must be mentioned, that on the banks of the 
Wolga, on the Oka, and on the Moskwa, the 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 21 

same pure Eussian is heard in the drawing-room 
and from the pulpit, as well as in the most 
humble spheres. 

2. The Malo-Russian, the language of the 
south of Russia. The principal difference be- 
tween this dialect and the Russian proper con- 
sists partly in the pronunciation of several let- 
ters, partly in many forms of expression, resem- 
bling the Old Slavonic. The influence of the 
Polish is still perceptible in the language. This 
dialect is especially rich in national songs, of 
which many are of peculiar beauty, touching 
naivete, and a poetical truth surpassing all arti- 
ficial decoration. The comic, for which it is 
admirably adapted, a foreigner is less able to 
appreciate, since indeed all excellence of a comic 
description can be felt only by those who are 
familiar with all those minute local and histori- 
cal circumstances, the allusions to which augment 
the ludicrous. 

3. The White-Russian is the dialect spoken 
in Lithuania, and especially Volhynia. All the 



22 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

historical documents of Lithuania are written in 
this dialect. The first Russian translation of 
the Bible was written in it. 

Considering the Eussian language as a whole, 
its immense copiousness must strike the atten- 
tion. Having been in early times subjected to 
the influence of the Scandinavian, Mongolian, 
Tartar, and Polish languages, it is in this respect 
to be compared with the English, in which the 
ancient British, the Latin, the Saxon, the 
Danish, and the French are amalgamated. But 
the great pre-eminence of the Eussian appears 
in the use which it made of its adaptations. 
Another excellence is the great freedom of con- 
struction which it allows, without becoming 
unintelligible or even ambiguous. Its adapted- 
ness for poetry is undeniable; of which the 
incomparable national songs afford numerous 
evidence. As to its euphony, what has been 
said before of the Slavic languages in general, 
may be applied particularly to the Eussian. 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 23 

First Period. 

The influence of the Yaregians appears to 
have been inconsiderable, their idiom being soon 
absorbed by that of the natives. Rurick's grand- 
sons had already Slavic names. The principal 
event in those remote times, and one which 
manifested its consequences in respect to civili- 
zation there, was the introduction of Christianity 
towards the end of the tenth century. Vladimir 
the Great, the first Christian monarch, founded 
the first schools ; Greek artists were called from 
Constantinople to embellish the newly erected 
churches at Kief. Vladimir and his Knights are 
the Russian Charlemagne and his Peers, King 
Arthur and his Round Table. These deeds 
and exploits serve even now to give to the 
earlier age of Russian history a tinge of that 
romantic charm, of which the history of the 
middle ages in general is so void. 

On the whole, the Russians enjoyed at that 
early period as much mental cultivation as any 



24 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

of the other of the northern parts of Europe. 
Jarvslav, the son of Vladimir the Great, was 
not less active than his father had been in 
advancing the cause of Christianity, and all that 
stands in connection with it. The theological 
productions of this epoch are of less value than 
the historical, although the field was diligently 
cultivated. Most of the productions which be- 
long indeed more to the history of the Slavonic 
than of the Russian literature, perished in the 
devastations and conflagrations of the Mongols. 
Prom 1298 to 1462, the Russian princes, as 
mentioned, were vassals of the Mongol Tartars. 
In the course of these two centuries, nearly 
every trace of cultivation perished. The Mon- 
gols set fire to the cities, sought out and pur- 
posely destroyed all monuments of national 
culture. The convents alone found a sort of 
protection ; hence science became more than ever 
the exclusive possession of monks. 

The re-establishment of Russian independence 
in the middle of the fifteenth century had a 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 25 

reviving influence. Some of the Russian princes 
invited artists and physicians from Greece, Italy, 
and Germany into their country, and rewarded 
them liberally. Ivan IV. ordered schools to 
be founded in all the cities of his empire; under 
his reign the first printing-office was established 
in Moscow, in 1564. The princes of the house 
of Romanoff showed themselves not less active. 
Alexis and Fedor, the father and brother of 
Peter the Great, appear as his worthy prede- 
cessors. During this whole latter period, the 
Polish language and literature exerted a decided 
influence on the Russian. The first germs of 
dramatic art were likewise carried from Poland 
to Russia. In Kief, the theological students 
performed ecclesiastical dramas, and travelled 
about during the holidays to exhibit their 
skill. Their renown penetrated from the con- 
vents to the court, where they performed before 
Czar Fedor. His minister Matveyef invited 
the first stage players to Russia, and at his 
instigation the first secular drama, a translation 

D 



26 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

of Moliere's " Medecin malgre lui/' was played 
before the gratified princesses and their delighted 
maids of honour. The sister of the two Czars, 
the Czarina Sophia, composed several tragedies 
and comedies herself, which were acted before 
her by her ladies. 

The department of history was very produc- 
tive. Not only were the Annals of Nestor con- 
tinued with zeal, but a series of other annals, 
biographies of princes, and chronographies, were 
produced. The weakest part of the literature of 
this later portion of the period is the theolo- 
gical branch. 

The light of the Eeformation, at that time 
spreading its rays over all Europe, did not 
penetrate into the Russian church, which, how- 
ever, has always distinguished itself by a spirit 
of Christian meekness 

Second Period. 
The history of the genuine Eussian literature 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 27 

begins only with the adoption of the usual lan- 
guage for all civil writing and public business. 
Before Peter the Great was able to establish 
a Russian printing-office in his own empire, in 
order not to lose time he gave a privilege for 
fifteen years to a Dutch printer for Eussian 
works. About the year 1704, the Czar in- 
vented himself some alterations in the Slavic 
letters, so as to make them more similar to the 
Latin, and the first Eussian newspaper was 
printed with them at St. Petersburgh in 1705 ; 
these letters are in use at the present time : in 
all theological writings, however, the ancient 
form of letters is preserved, and therein consists 
the difference between the civil and church 
alphabet. 

The energy with which Peter the Great pro- 
ceeded, caused Eussia to overleap a whole cen- 
tury ; the Eussian nation, susceptible of deep 
impressions, willing to be guided by a hand 
acknowledged as that of a superior. The only 
impediment in those innovations was an inex- 



28 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

perienced, apprehensive, and jealous priesthood. 
Whether the rapidity of the Czar's improve- 
ments was a real benefit, is not the place to 
examine here ; yet, with regard to the language, 
although it possesses all the elements of com- 
pleteness, it must be admitted that the, in some 
instances, vehement innovations, prevented its 
gradual development, by which it would have 
preserved its original peculiarity, — that wonderful 
blending of the east and the west, of Asiatic 
suppleness and European energy, of which the 
national songs give such affecting, and often 
powerful specimens. 

Books were ordered to be translated from the 
German, the English, the French, and the 
Dutch; the haste, however, with which this 
was performed, and the greater attention to the 
matter than to the form, had the natural conse- 
quence that most of these translations were 
inferior productions, executed without the least 
regard to the Russian language itself. Beauties 
of style, and even mere purity of language, 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 29 

oelong in a certain measure to the luxuries of 
literature ; the Czar thought only of utility. 

In historical contributions this period is not 
without interest ; but as not the slightest atten- 
tion was paid to style, and, moreover, those who 
wrote did not know from what principles to 
begin, the language remained entirely unculti- 
vated. Meanwhile the national songs held 
faithfully to the old Kussian irregular, but 
highly musical numbers, so much charming the 
ear. 

Third Period. 

From this period the standard of Eussian 
literature, as it appears at present, must be 
dated. It was the Emperor Peter's hand that 
unfurled it ; it was Lomonosoff who fixed it on 
Eussian ground ; whilst the fortunate caprices 
and vanities of Elizabeth and Catherine made 
rally round it more admirers and followers than 
otherwise would ever have been the case. In 
1758, the University of Moscow was founded, 



80 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

and other similar institutions were established 
by Catherine's unbounded liberality. 

It was in an obscure family that Lomonosoff, 
the creator of Russian prose, was born in 1711. 
Fortunate circumstances made him find patrons 
and means to follow an ardent desire for mental 
cultivation, and subsequently to visit foreign 
countries, where he improved the knowledge 
acquired at home. At his return he was 
honourably employed by the Government, and 
died in 1765, although in the enjoyment of 
general esteem, but not with that degree of 
reputation awarded to him by a more judicious 
posterity. He first ventured to draw a distinct 
line between the old Slavic and tiie Russian 
languages, and laid down fixed rules for the 
general compass of the language. None of his 
productions are without merit, but he possessed 
more sagacity and innate talent than genius. 

The first Russian theatre was instituted in 
Jarvslav, in 1746. The foundation of a national 
stage at Moscow, in 1759, served much to 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 31 

awaken the dramatic talent of the Russians, — a 
faculty in which they are perhaps incomparable. 
The partiality which caused the Russians ever 
to pay attention to their national history, de- 
serves the highest commendation ; as for theo- 
logical and biblical literature, scarcely any thing 
interesting meets the observation. 

Fourth Period. 

The number of Russian writers during this 
period increased considerably, owing to the zeal 
shown by the Emperor Alexander, during the 
first years of his reign, for the mental cultivation 
and enlightenment of his subjects. Besides the 
universities, eight in number, of which the 
Emperor Alexander founded five, an Institution 
for the study of oriental languages was established 
at St. Petersburgh in 1823, and in 1829 a 
similar one at Odessa, a city which has by its 
position more natural advantges for the learning 
of Asiatic languages than any other. Although 
the object of the oriental schools in Russia was 



32 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

originally to educate translators for diplomatic 
missions, they proved very useful in general, 
foreigners having availed themselves of opportu- 
nities for studies which their own countries could 
not offer. 

The field of Russian literature extended itself 
during the course of the Emperor Alexander's 
reign, or rather from 1800 to 1822, with most 
remarkable rapidity. In the year 1787, the 
number of books in the old Slavonic and Russian 
dialects did not exceed 4000 ; before 1820 
twice that number was counted; the year 1820 
alone produced 3400 works, 800 of them trans- 
lations from the Trench, 483 from the German, 
and more than 100 from the English. But at 
this time literature in Russia appears to have 
reached its height, in respect to productiveness, 
but retrograded also with still greater rapidity. 
Three hundred and fifty living authors were 
enumerated in 1822, mostly belonging to the 
nobility, their literary activity being chiefly con- 
fined to words of fiction. 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 33 

Nicholas Karamzin, from the commencement 
of whose influence this period of Russian litera- 
ture is dated, was born in 1765. In spite of 
an early development of his literary predilection 
he entered the military service, which was then 
considered as the most honourable in Russia. 
After two years spent in travelling through 
Europe, he opened his literary career with the 
publication of a periodical called the " Moscow 
Journal/' which exercised a decidedly favourable 
influence on Russian literature ; a certain senti- 
mentality pervades these productions, which 
evidently bear the stamp of the author's 
youth. He showed more maturity and energy 
in his second periodical, the " European Mes- 
senger." But his principal reputation rests upon 
his history of the Russian empire. In the com- 
position of this work Karamzin was much 
favoured ; all the archives were opened to him, 
all documents delivered into his hands, and 
when it was completed, rewards and testimo- 
nials were heaped upon the author with impe- 
rial munificence. The beauties of Karamzin's 



34 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

style are so entirely idiomatic, that no one who 
is not perfectly acquainted with the language is 
able to appreciate them. Over the barbarism of 
ancient times, he dexterously throws a veil of 
embellishment, and lends a spirit of chivalry and 
romantic charm to historical persons and deeds, 
where all the circumstances of place and time 
appear in absolute contradiction; so far that 
the reader thinks to peruse a novel. In spite 
of those deviations and unhistorical colour- 
ings, Karamzin's History of Russia will remain 
a standard work in Slavic literature, partly on 
account of the copiousness of its sources, partly 
in consideration of the amazing diligence therein 
displayed. In respect to Karamzin's innova- 
tions, he considered the French and English 
mode of construction as better adapted to the 
Eussian language, than the imitation of the 
classical structure. He adopted with ease and 
gracefulness the peculiarities of the modern 
languages; but a portion of his imitators, misin- 
terpreting Karamzin, introduced Gallicisms. 
This caused an opposition to be formed, insist- 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 35 

ing upon preserving the influence of the Church 
Slavonic upon the Eussian language, and result- 
ing in two parties dividing, in some measure, 
the field of Eussian literature. To foreigners, 
the travels of the Eussians by sea and land must 
become more interesting and instructive than 
any other part of their literature. The regions 
of Malo-Eussia, the Caucasus and Taurida, of 
which previously little was known, were explored 
by Eussians, and described in valuable volumes. 
An account of China was translated in 1827 
into the English. The works of the head of 
the Eussian Ecclesiastical Mission at Pekin, 
published in 1828 to 1832, are of great im- 
portance for the knowledge of China, Thibet, and 
the country of the Mongols. The national 
feeling of the Eussians has led them, during the 
period of their literary history, to examine the 
nature of their language ; and all the researches 
which could throw additional light upon the 
past have been favoured and advanced by per- 
sons of distinction and influence. 



86 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

Fifth Period. 

This period opens with a tragical catastrophe, 
by which several literati of fame and distinction 
fell victims to their imprudence. It was evi- 
dent that the Russian muse was no longer 
satisfied with the limits hitherto observed ; she 
was no longer the shepherdess who inspired so 
many with sweet yet tame verses ; she had by 
pernicious influences gradually become meta- 
morphosed, and efforts therefore were necessary 
to arrest eccentricities, and to make Eussian 
literature what it had been before. The spirit 
of historical researches, as well as the interest 
for the study of the Slavic languages, was 
already awakened in the preceding period. 
Everything was done to favour it, and to nou- 
rish that zeal which tries to penetrate the past 
in order to search for those links which connect 
it with the present. 

In reference to the critical researches through 
all branches of history, the present may be ap- 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 37 

propriately called the historical period. The 
examination of manuscripts and historical docu- 
ments was not confined to the libraries of the 
Empire; researches were instituted in Paris, 
Germany, Denmark, Bulgaria, and among the 
Russian tribes of Northern Hungary, by persons 
sent thither; and a general interest was thus 
awakened among the higher classes of society. 

The treatment of modern history in Russia 
has its difficulties, which easily may be compre- 
hended; and in no department has Russian 
literature remained more behind than in the 
treatment of foreign, and especially European, 
history. The series of publications relating to 
it consist almost exclusively of defective trans- 
lations, or feeble imitations. In respect to the 
history of several Asiatic nations, other countries 
almost entirely depend on Russian writers. 

The literature of travels to foreign lands is at 
the present period not rich ; travels in the inte- 
rior even are not very easy. Two collections of 
old travels, one to foreign countries, another 



38 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

comprising the accounts of foreigners who tra- 
velled in Eussia in olden times, have, however, 
recently been published. 

The department of belles-lettres generally 
distinctly characterises the genius of a nation. 
The tendencies which in Eussia prevail in the 
other branches, viz. a revival of interest for all 
that is native, Slavic, or relating to the past ; 
the reaction from a period of predilection for all 
that was foreign, is very clearly perceptible in 
this portion. After this remark it cannot sur- 
prise that towards the close of the last, and 
especially at the beginning of the present period, 
the historical novel was cultivated with parti- 
cular fondness, and almost exclusively devoted 
to Eussian history. As to poetry, Eussian 
critics consider the short-lived productiveness in 
this department as being apparently on the de- 
cline ; solitary voices are heard, and these voices 
seem to be exhausted almost as soon they are 
heard. The more exuberant, however, appears 
the dramatic department, where the reverential 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 89 

attachment of Russians to their monarch is 
exhibited in the very titles chosen by several 
dramatic authors. 

In the different branches of natural science, 
the progress in Russia has recently been im- 
mense. In regard to periodical literature, the 
number of journals is obviously limited. That 
which most favourably speaks of the merits and 
exploits of the nation, is always considered as 
the best. The recent events in Europe have 
of course, more than ever before, provoked 
measures to exclude the influence of foreign 
literature, although the merits of foreigners in 
relation to Russian history, &c, and their 
labours in relation to the language, must be 
acknowledged as most distinguished. 

NOTICE OF THE ILLYRI CO -SERVIAN LANGUAGE. 

The literature of the western Slavo- Servians 
has hitherto been altogether treated as a distinct 
branch, separated from that of their brethren 
of the oriental church. Their language, however, 
being essentially the same, and a difference 



40 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

merely existing in the letters, the separation is 
not sufficiently established. 

The Servian language is spoken by about five 
millions. The southern sky, and the beauties 
of natural scenery, so favourable in general 
to the development of poetical genius, appear 
also to have exerted a happy influence on this 
language. While it yields to none of the 
other Slavic dialects in richness, clearness, and 
precision, it far surpasses all of them in euphony, 
being decidedly the most melodious of the Slavic 
languages, rich in vowels, and abounding in 
soft and powerful accents. The ancient Illyricum 
comprised all the countries situated between the 
Adriatic and the Black Sea, and along the 
Danube. Towards the middle of the seventh 
century, this vast country appears occupied by 
a Slavic people, of one and the same race. An 
impenetrable night rests on the early history of 
these regions, originally divided into six king- 
doms ; and although some light has been thrown 
on this general topic, the investigations have 
been of little consequence for the history of the 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 41 

language. As early as the seventh century, a 
part of these nations embraced Christianity, 
which, among the remainder, found a ready 
reception in the eighth and ninth centuries. The 
partial revival of Servian literature in 1758 
produced a considerable number of works, among 
them not a few, notwithstanding the mixed and 
unsettled idiom in which they are written, attest 
the general capacities of the nation. This de- 
partment would have become more accessible to 
foreigners, did the great variety of letters and 
forms of writing not discourage to penetrate into 
a structure where so much confusion is encoun- 
tered at the first step. 

This notice concerning the language of the 
Illyrico-Servian branch must be considered as 
very superficial, inasmuch as the dialects and 
literature of some of the nations, mentioned at 
the beginning of the subdivision, are exceed- 
ingly attractive, and in some instances quite 
original and distinct. Details, however, would 
scarcely interest the general reader. 

E 



42 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

NOTICE OF THE LANGUAGE OE THE BULGARIANS. 

According to certain opinions, Bulgaria, and 
the adjacent regions of Macedonia, are the real 
home of the old Slavic language. No other 
dialect, however, has been so much affected as 
the Bulgarian, by the course of time and foreign 
influence ; Bulgaria having been for centuries 
the great thoroughfare of other nations. The 
history of this country is a series of continued 
warfare with the Servians, Greeks, and Hunga- 
rians on one hand ; and, on the other, with the 
Turks, who subdued them, and put an end to 
the existence of a Bulgarian kingdom in 1392. 
The feeble germs of cultivation diffused there 
by two or three of their princes, perished during 
the Turkish invasion. There is no trace of a 
literature, and the only point of view from which 
the language, uncultivated as it is, can excite a 
general interest, consists in the national songs, 
in which this dialect is said to be exceedingly 
rich. 



PART III. 
WESTERN STEM. 

NOTICE OF THE CZEKISH OK BOHEMIAN BRANCH* 

Of all the Slavic languages, the Bohemian 
dialect and literature is the only one which, to 
the Protestant reader, must be of more than 
general interest; — not so much by its own 
character, in which it differs little from the other 
Slavic languages, but from those remarkable 
circumstances which more or less affected almost 
every part of Europe. The names of Huss 
and Jerome of Prague, and the events which 
rendered their names conspicuous, are familiar. 
The Bohemians having become ready to maintain 
their convictions not less with the pen than 
with the sword, the theological literature of the 
fifteenth, sixteenth, and the first twenty years of 
the seventeenth century, is of an extent with 






44 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

which that of no other Slavic language can be com- 
pared. Most of these productions bear decidedly 
the stamp of the period, dictated by the polemical 
spirit of the age, and for the most part directed 
by one party against another ; but on the other 
hand, while the theological literature of all the 
other Slavic nations is almost exclusively limited 
to sermons and devotional books, among the 
Bohemians alone researches and interpretations 
are met with, of theological matters of a higher 
sphere. 

There are few branches of science or art in 
which the Bohemians have not to boast of some 
eminent name. The talent, however, for which 
this nation is the most distinguished, is that of 
music. A fondness for music, and a natural gift 
to execute it, are indeed common to all Slavic 
nations ; but the talent of the Bohemian is of a 
superior order. He unites the spirit of harmony, 
characteristic of the Germans, with the gift of 
melody belonging to the Italians ; and there is 
hardly anything which strikes the English and 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 45 

American traveller more than the prevalence 
of musical genius in that beautiful region. The 
Bohemian language is spoken not only by the 
Bohemians and the Moravians, but by nearly 
two millions of Slovaks, those venerable remains 
of the ancient Slavic settlements between the 
Carpathian mountains and the rivers Theiss 
and Danube; yet the latter have a dialect, or 
rather dialects, essentially different from the 
language in Bohemia and Moravia. 

According to old chronicles, there were even 
some regular schools erected in early times, — one 
near Prague, and another, later, in Prague itself, 
where Latin was taught : thus the Latin and 
German languages had an early influence on 
the formation of the Bohemian. Ir yields neither 
in copiousness nor in pliability, neither in clearness 
nor in precision, to any other Slavic language, 
In respect to sound, however, the reproach of 
harshness and want of euphony has been made 
with justice, although it appears that this is 
more a production of modern times than an 



46 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

ingredient of the original language; for the 
ancient Bohemian, in legends and national songs, 
sounds by far more melodious. After this re- 
mark it seems singular that in a country where 
such an extent of musical talent prevails, a lan- 
guage should be spoken of so much harshness. 

Five periods are assigned to the history of 
the Bohemian literature. 

The first comprises the whole interval from 
the first knowledge of the Czeks to the influence 
of Huss, or from 550 to 1400. 

The second period from Huss to the general 
diffusion of the art of printing. 

The third extends to the battle at the White 
Mountain, 1620. 

The fourth from this battle to 1774 and 1780. 

The fifth period embraces the interval from 
1780 to the present time. 

First Period. 
Of the language of the Czeks, as it existed 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 47 

when they first settled in Bohemia, nothing is 
left, except the names of the rivers, mountains, 
towns, and those of their first chiefs. All this 
induces to conclude that the language was then 
the same as at the present time. The first 
certain written documents are not older than 
the introduction of Christianity. 

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the 
influence of German customs and habits showed 
itself more and more, and the nobility began to 
use in preference the German language. In 
calling, therefore, the Bohemian lyric poetry of 
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the echo 
of the German, would be to convey the idea that 
the same spirit inspired the Bohemians and the 
Germans. During the fourteenth century the 
influence of the latter increased so considerably 
that the jealousy of the nation was much excited. 
German fashions in dress and manners prevailed 
at the court, and the king kept a German body- 
guard. Under Charles I., or the Emperor 
Charles IV., as he is termed, Bohemia reached 



48 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

the highest point of splendour ; he limited the 
privileges of the Germans, and thus reconciled 
the minds of the Bohemians. 



Second Period. 

At the commencement of the fifteenth century, 
the University of Prague had reached the sum- 
mit of its prosperity. No department of science 
was neglected, theology, however, excited the 
most animated interest ; the attention in spiritual 
matters being no longer confined, but pervading 
all classes. Immediately after Wickliffe's death 
an intercourse had been established between 
England and Bohemia, by the marriage of a 
Bohemian princess, Ann, to Richard the Second 
of England. A young Bohemian nobleman, who 
had finished his studies in Prague, repaired to 
Oxford, and on his return placed into the hands 
of John Huss, at that time Professor of Theology 
at Prague, a copy of all Wickliffe's writings. 
The pretensions of Rome had been for some 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 49 

time looked upon in Bohemia with disapprobation, 
no wonder, then, if the opinions and expressions 
of the Reformers found a ready echo in the breasts 
of their hearers, so far that in the year 1414, in 
consequence of his convictions, Huss was sum- 
moned to appear before the Council of Constance; 
but although he exculpated himself completely, 
the Council persisted in condemning him to be 
burned alive, on the 6th of July, 1415. His 
friend Jerome shared the same fate on the 30 th 
of May, ]416. 

Keeping only in view the fate of the- language, 
the reader is referred to the historical accounts 
of this melancholy period ; and to those events 
allusion has merely been made, inasmuch as 
they had a certain influence on the Bohemian 
language and literature. 

Although religion filled the minds during this 
period more than in any other, it did not ab- 
sorb all the interest ; besides, in the midst of 
those struggles which mark the epoch, arts and 
science necessarily remained neglected. 



50 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

The Bohemian language, although improving 
with the fifteenth century, had however not yet 
supplanted the Latin. In respect to the date 
of the introduction of printing, the first regular 
establishment in Prague is not older that 1487. 



Third Period. 

It is chiefly for the sake of clearness if this 
period is separated from the former; in its 
character it was entirely the same. What the 
Bohemians, in respect to the language, had 
acquired in the one, they possessed in the other ; 
what was known to few, now became diffused 
amongst many ; but the objects, the stamp of 
both centuries, were similar. The extent of the 
Bohemian national literature increased during 
the sixteenth century so rapidly, and the oppor- 
tunities for cultivation became so numerous, 
that the difficulty of giving a condensed or dis- 
tinct review is much augmented. 

During the reign of Rudolph, great attention 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 51 

was paid to the Bohemian language ; but still it 
existed only side by side with the Latin. The 
field, however, which appears to have been cul- 
tivated with the most diligence, was that of 
theology, — and fortunately with an equal degree 
of talent. 

The battle at the White Mountain near Prague, 
in 1620, so disastrous to the Protestants, de- 
cided the destiny of Bohemia, as well as the fate 
of the language, the latter having since never 
been used in public business. 

Fourth Period. 

Of this period there is but little to say. A 
dull pressure lay upon the nation, as if paralysed. 
Innumerable monks came from all parts, who 
condemned and burned every Bohemian book, 
those which they did not destroy were deposited 
in separate chambers in the convents, provided 
with iron gratings, bolts, and chains. There were, 
however, some exceptions among these zealots, — 



5£ SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

persons, who, independent of religious prejudices, 
continued to labour for the preservation of the 
mother tongue. 

The greater part of what was written during 
this period proceeded from the Slovaks in Hun- 
gary, a nation related to the Bohemians in 
race and language, who after the reformation 
had adopted the Bohemian dialect as their literary 
language, especially under the protection of 
Maria Theresa. 

Fifth Period. 

At that time, 1774, the neglect of the Bohe- 
mian language is very evident, and it required 
the entire energy and influence of several per- 
sons of distinction to revive it ; and owing to 
diligence and literary productiveness, the long 
interval of a dull and death-like silence soon 
disappeared, and the aimed at revival was pro- 
duced. 

The zeal which at the present time appears to 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 58 

have been manifested to follow out the traces of 
the language and history of the Slavic races, in 
the remotest past, has no where been exhibited 
with more ardour and disinterestedness than in 
Bohemia; but whether such efforts will have 
any ultimate result, and may prevent the Bohe- 
mian language from gradually yielding to the 
German, the future alone will demonstrate. 
The torrent of time, in its resistless course 
frequently overwhelming nations, disperses their 
vestiges in scattered fragments, as feeble memo- 
rials for an inquiring posterity that they once 
existed. 



NOTICE OF THE LANGUAGE OE THE SLOVAKS. 

The north-western part of Hungary is inha- 
bited by the Slovaks, who appear to be the 
direct descendants of the original Slavic settlers 
in Europe. Byzantine historians mention no- 
madic tribes, whose name incontestably indicates 
the Slavi, as having troubled the Byzantine 



54 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

Empire in early times. But they soon disap- 
peared from history, and it is not before the 
ninth century, when they were already Chris- 
tians, that they are again mentioned. Part of 
Panonia was inhabited by the Slovaks, whence 
they were pressed back into the mountains by 
the Magyars, who in 894 conquered Panonia. 
Although the Slovaks submitted to their fate, 
and lived thenceforth on good terms with their 
conquerors, yet, even after nearly a thousand 
years have passed, they still speak their original 
language ; the latter, however, is the only rem- 
nant of their national existence. 

The Slovakish language, exposed, through 
the geographical situation of the nation, to the 
influence of various other Slavic idioms, is more 
broken up into different dialects than perhaps 
any other living tongue. 

To enumerate the features which distinguish 
the Slovakish dialects would oblige to enter 
into uninteresting details. The only thing which 
belongs to the Slovaks exclusively is a variety 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 55 

of diphthongs, where all the other Slavic dia- 
lects have simple vowels. 

The Slovakish language has never been a 
literary language, having been so far oppressed 
that even historical songs, familiar nearly a 
hundred years ago, have perished. It is a sin- 
gular fact, that whilst every where else the friends 
of Protestantism have attempted to raise the 
dialect generally in use, in opposition to a privi- 
leged idiom of the priesthood, among the 
Slovaks, this resuscitation has been attempted 
by the Romanists, meeting with strong opposi- 
tion from the Protestants. Many among the 
Slovaks have received a German education, and 
having therefore the German language at com- 
mand, those who write use it in preference. 

NOTICE OF THE POLISH LANGUAGE AND 
LITEKATUEE. 

After the Vandals and Goths had finally left 
the regions of the Baltic and Lower Vistula, 



56 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

they were occupied towards the fourth century 
by the Lithuanians, who_, according to so m 
historians, are Slavic, according to others Scythic 
tribes. The various nations which inhabited this 
country were, it appears, comprised under the 
name Sarmatse. In the sixth or seventh cen- 
tury, the Lekhes, coming from the Carpathian 
neighbourhood, settled on the banks of the 
Vistula and Yarta ; the latter, divided into 
several tribes, were called Polyanie, inhabitants 
of the plain ; the specific name of Poles does not 
appear until the close of the tenth century. 
Prom 965, all the Polish princes, and the greater 
part of the nation, became Christians ; but neither 
from those early times, nor from the four or 
five centuries after the introduction of Christia- 
nity, does there remain any monument whatever 
of the Polish language, — nay, with the exception 
of a few fragments without value, the most 
ancient document of that language is not older 
than the sixteenth century. Until that time 
the Latin exclusively predominated in Poland ; 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 57 

hence arose a neglect of the vernacular, and 
hence the private influence of the German, still 
visible in the Polish language. But although 
this operated unfavourably upon the language, 
foreign influence was in other respects not inju- 
rious to the literary development. Benedictine 
monks founded in the beginning of the eleventh 
century the first Polish schools, and numerous 
convents and other orders offered an asylum, 
when in 1241 the Mongols broke into the 
country, and also during the civil wars caused 
by the dissensions of the reigning family. 

The history of the Polish language is gene- 
rally divided into five periods : — 

The first extends from the introduction of 
Christianity to Casimir the Great, 1333. 

The second from 1333 to 1506, or the reign 
of Sigismond I. 

The third closes with the foundation of the 
schools by the Jesuits, 1622. 

The fourth comprises the time of the pre- 



58 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

ponderance of the Jesuits, and ends with the 
revival of literature in 1760. 

The fifth period comprehends the interval 
from 1760 to the revolution in 1830. 

The Polish literature of the present day 
bearing a different stamp from that of former 
times, a sixth period could be added, extending 
from 1830 to the most recent period. 

Before entering, however, upon a historical 
account of those divisions, a few remarks con- 
cerning the history and character of the language 
itself may find a place here. The extent of 
country in which the Polish is predominant, is 
much smaller than would naturally be concluded 
from the great circuit of territory, which, at the 
time of its power and independence, was com- 
prised under the Kingdom of Poland. The six- 
teenth century must be excepted, when Poland, 
by the success of its arms, became for a short 
time the most powerful state in the north. The 
Teutonic Knights, the conquerors of Prussia, 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 59 

were then compelled to acknowledge its pro- 
tection, when not only Livonia and Courland, 
but even the ancient Smolensk and the vene- 
rable Kief, the royal seat of Vladimir, and the 
Russian provinces adjacent to Galicia, were 
subjugated by Poland. Besides the language 
of the country, the Malo-Russian and White- 
Russian dialects are spoken in several provinces. 
The inhabitants of the cities and the nobility of 
Galicia, belonging to Austria, the inhabitants 
of Cracow, and the Duchy of Posen in Prussia, 
and of other Prussian and Austrian provinces, 
speak the Polish language. Tims it is spoken 
by about ten millions, with slight varia- 
tions. 

The ancient Polish seems to have been 
nearly related to the dialects of the Czeks and 
Sorabians. Although very little is known in 
respect to the circumstances and progress of the 
formation of the language into its present state, 
it is evident that it has been developed from the 



60 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

conflict of its natural elements with the Latin 
and German. 

Of all the Slavic dialects, the Polish presents 
to the foreigner the most difficulties ; partly on 
account of the great variety of shades in the 
pronunciation of the vowels, and from the com- 
bination of consonants in such a manner that 
only a Slavic tongue can conquer them, and 
cause the apparent harshness to disappear; 
partly on account of its refined and artificial 
structure. In this latter it differs materially 
from the Russian language, which, although 
equally rich, is remarkable for its simplicity and 
perspicuity. 



First Period. 

The early part of the history of the Polish 
literature is divided into two periods, although 
it seems singular to pretend to give an account 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 61 

of a literature which did not yet exist ; it does 
not indeed properly begin before the close of the 
second period. Of the language itself nothing 
is left but the names of places and persons, and 
some Polish words scattered through the Latin 
documents of the time, often hardly intelligible. 
There exists an ancient war- song, but even this 
is, in its present form, not older than the four- 
teenth century. All that remains from this 
period is in Latin. 

In Poland, longer than in any other country, 
education was entirely in the hands of the 
ecclesiastics ; for several hundred years the 
natives were excluded from all clerical dignities 
and privileges, and the numerous monasteries 
were filled with foreign monks, even as late as 
the fifteenth century. These narrow-minded or 
cunning men were in the habit of destroying 
whatever they could find written in the Polish 
language, and, as instructors, had a facility to fill 
the heads of the young nobility with unnatural 



62 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

prejudices against the language of their own 
country. 

Second Period. 

Casimir is one of those princes who acquired 
the name of the Great, not by victories and 
conquests, but through the benefits bestowed 
upon his subjects. His father, Vladislaus 
Lokietek, had resumed the royal title, and was 
the first who permanently united Great and 
Little Poland. Under Casimir, the present 
Austrian kingdom of Galicia was added by 
inheritance, and Lithuania became a Polish 
fief in 1386, but only completely incorporated 
in 1569. 

As to the influence of Casimir the Great 
upon the cultivation of his subjects, it was 
more mediate than immediate. "Whilst his 
contemporary and neighbour, Charles IV., of 
Bohemia, promoted the cultivation of the Ian- 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 63 

guage spoken within his dominion, Casimir 
paid no attention whatever to the vernacular of 
his country. 

The history of the Polish language properly 
commences only with the close, or at the utmost 
with the middle, of the present period, when in 
the year 1488 the first printing-office was 
erected at Cracow. Of the more ancient times 
only weak and scattered traces are left ; the 
manuscripts remaining are fragments, documents 
relating to suits of law, translations of statutes in 
Latin, the ten commandments in verse, &c. 
The orthography of the language must have 
caused a great deal of trouble, some writers 
using alternately the Latin, Bohemian, and the 
German method of forming and combining 
letters. 

Third Period. 
. In northern climates the bright days of 



64 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

summer follow in almost immediate succession 
a long and gloomy winter, without allowing to 
the lover of nature the enjoyment of observing, 
during the transient interval of spring, the 
gradual development of the beauty of the earth. 
Thus the flowers of Polish literature burst forth 
with a rapidity unequalled in literary history. 
The university of Cracow had been reinstituted 
under Jagello in 1400, and organized after that 
of Prague. Although the most flourishing 
period of this institution was the sixteenth 
century, yet it presented during the fifteenth to 
the Polish nobility a good opportunity of 
studying the classics; and it is doubtless 
through this familiarity with the ancient writers 
that the celerity of literary development, 
alluded to, must be principally accounted for. 
It was, moreover, now when Christian Europe 
began to make decided effort? for more expan- 
sion of thought. The wild flame of false 
religious zeal, which in Poland also, under the 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 65 

sons and immediate successors of Jagello, had 
spread, was extinguished before the milder 
wisdom of Sigismund I. The activity of the 
Inquisition was restrained, but the new doctrines 
found a more decided support in Sigismund 
Augustus ; Poland became under his admini- 
stration the seat of a toleration then unequalled 
in the world. 

The Bohemian language acquired during this 
period a great influence upon the Polish, as well 
as Protestantism on the literature of Poland, 
although its doctrines have occupied there the 
minds less than those of any other nation 
amongst whom they have been received. 

The Polish language acquired during the 
sixteenth century such a degree of refinement 
that even on the revival of literature and taste 
in modern times, nothing was necessary to add 
for its improvement. The practical use which 
was made of the language for a variety of 
subjects, contributed still more to its cultivation; 



66 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

but the point in which it acquired less perfection 
was that of orthography, owing to the mnnner 
in which several consonants are combined. 
This system of letters forms the connecting link 
between the Polish and the languages of 
western Europe. 

So early as under Casimir, the son of Jagello, 
the Polish language began to be employed at 
the Court ; but a language which issued from 
the latter was necessarily also dependent on the 
changes of the Court; thus Stephen Bathory, 
prince of Transylvania, who was elected after 
Henry of Yalois had deserted the country, was, 
as a foreigner, in the habit of interspersing his 
conversation and writings with Latin words. 
It is hardly admissible that this habit of the 
king could have any influence on a language 
already so well cultivated, although the general 
fashion of mixing Latin words and phrases with 
the Polish is ascribed to it. 

The cultivation of the language of the country, 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 67 

and the study of the Latin, have indeed ever 
proceeded with equal steps in Poland. For 
ordinary conversation, even, they were used 
alternately. So, for instance, Sigismund I., 
when separated from his first queen, Barbara, 
maintained with her a correspondence in Latin ; 
and his second queen, Bona Sforza, habitually 
employed that language in their most familiar 
intercourse. 

The facility of rhyme in a language so rich in 
rhymes, seduced several to use verse as a vehicle 
for the most trivial thoughts, or for subjects the 
very nature of which is opposed to poetry. 
Eloquence, so nearly related to poetry, and 
which, nevertheless, perhaps on that account 
should be distinguished from it by the most de- 
finite limits, is a gift for the cultivation of 
which the Poles possess all the necessary quali- 
ties. 

Tt is to be remarked that the Polish theological 
literature of this period evinced less of a pole- 



68 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

mical spirit than might have been expected in 
an age when that of the neighbouring countries 
abounded in controversial books, replete with 
unchristian bitterness. The wise moderation 
of the two Sigismunds and of Stephen Bathory, 
seems to have pacified the minds, and to have 
kept them within appropriate limits, in that 
respect. 

History, especially national history, was con- 
sidered as one of the subjects most worthy of 
attention, — it is the great school upon the ap- 
plication of lessons which it gives, the fate of 
nations depends. In this department, however, 
the Latin was preferred ; and so with regard to 
works on science. 



Fourth Period. 

The noble race of the Jagellons being extinct 
on the death of Sigismund Augustus in 1572, 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 69 

Poland became an elective monarchy; the 
nation being understood to consist legally of the 
nobility only. Stephen Bathory's energy kept 
the discordant elements together, and at home 
he took care to improve the administration of 
justice, while his victorious arms, for a short 
time, raised Poland to the summit of its glory ; 
but under his successor began that anarchy which 
is considered as the principal cause of Poland's 
final calamitous fate. To fundamental evils, 
combined with other disastrous events, the 
building, weakened in its foundation, could 
make no resistance, and its walls gave way when 
they were suddenly shaken by powerful enemies 
from without. 

The perversion of taste which at the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century predominated in 
Italy, created also in the literature of Poland a 
new period. To the remarkable activity of mind 
in the preceding period there followed a sort of 
lethargy. The fashion first introduced at the 



70 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

close of the preceding period of interspersing 
the Polish language with Latin words and 
phrases, became during the present more and 
more predominant ; and was at length carried 
so far as to give to Polish words a false Latin 
sound. French, German, and Italian forms of 
expression soon obtained the same right ; but 
what affected the language most, was that even 
the natural structure had to make place to an 
imitation of foreign idioms. Thus its great 
pliancy, one of its principal excellencies, became 
a source of its corruption. 

Poland, moreover, at a time when the minds 
of the rest of Europe were tolerably pacified in 
a religious respect, became the scene of theo- 
logical controversies full of acrimony, and sub- 
sequently even of persecution. The general 
mental lethargy which began to reign in Poland 
during this period, can hardly be ascribed to 
any other influence than to the promoters of 
the bitterness of feeling just alluded to. Lite- 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 71 

rature and the fine arts, however, found a friend 
and protector in a gifted and accomplished king, 
and in several distinguished noblemen. But 
the period of pedantry and perversion of taste 
had already lasted more than a hundred and 
thirty years ; very difficult, therefore, it became 
to eradicate abuses and deformities. 



Fifth Period. 

The Polish language at the beginning of this 
period was in a melancholy state; stripped of 
its natural perspicuity, simplicity, and strength, 
deformed by tastelessness, it had grown childish. 
It was fortunate that just at the time when 
several of the most influential Polish noblemen 
began to feel an intense interest in their neglected 
language, a number of gifted minds appeared, 
who showed so much activity that the field of 



72 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES* 

Polish literature soon flourished again. Various 
measures were taken; but the new patrons could 
not wait. The French literature of the day, 
with its levity and splendour, seemed to be more 
in harmony with the spirit of the Court. In 
this way may be explained in part the superficial 
and light tone which prevails in all the Polish 
works of this age, during a period when vehe- 
ment passions and furious contests already tore 
the country in pieces. But even the most 
violent party struggles seemed to be favourable 
to literature. The minds were in a state of 
excitement, which gave power to produce the 
most extraordinary things ; a reaction, however, 
very naturally followed. After twenty years of 
mental struggles and combats, succeeded a calm, 
an intellectual blank, of more than twelve years. 
It was as if with the dissolution of the kingdom 
the nation had sunk into a state of intellectual 
apathy. The interval from 1795 to 1807, in 
comparison with the years which preceded and 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 73 

have followed, was remarkably sterile ; transla- 
tions augmented with undue proportion, and 
the purity of the language suffered conside- 
rably. 

The French language, independently of the 
events of modern times, had already acted 
powerfully on the Polish at the close of the pre- 
ceding period ; for more than half a century it 
reigned with unlimited precedence over all the 
literary world, — but its most absolute dominion 
was in Poland. In the manners of the nobility, 
French gracefulness and ease were, in a peculiar 
and interesting manner, blended with the he- 
roism of the knight and the luxuriousness and 
ostentation of the Asiatic. French refinement 
covered the rudeness and revelry characteristic 
of the middle ages ; and a journey to France 
was among the requisite conditions of an accom- 
plished education. 

The Polish writers — all of them belonging to 
the higher class — to whom, from their youth, 



74 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

the French was equally familiar with their own 
language, unconsciously disfigured the latter 
by Gallicisms; since French forms of expres- 
sion seemed to be the best adapted for the ex- 
pression of French thoughts, although the rich 
and pliant Polish language was decidedly op- 
posed to such anomalies. 

The Polish language, the purity of which at 
the beginning of the present period was an ob- 
ject of particular attention, has been, in the 
present century, a subject of numerous inqui- 
ries, some of which have thrown considerable 
light upon the Slavic languages and history in 
general. 

There is no branch in which the Poles mani- 
fested a greater want of original power than the 
dramatic. Here the influence of the French 
school was most decided, and indeed exclusive. 
Pains were taken by the most distinguished 
persons of the nation to establish a national 
stage, to which they looked, not in the light of 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 75 

amusement, but as a school for purifying and 
elevating the national language. 

With respect to novels, tales in prose, and 
similar productions, the literature of Poland has 
been much less overwhelmed than that of the 
Bussians* 

For the study of polite literature and the 
Slavic languages during this period Warsaw was 
the principal seat ; for other branches, the Uni- 
versity of Wilna. 

In consequence of the Grand Duke Constan- 
tine's predilection for mathematics, an undue 
share of attention, after the erection of the king- 
dom under his administration, was paid to the 
exact or empirical sciences, — undue, because 
other branches were necessarily neglected. 

It is a singular fact, that although down to 
the year 1818, when tours in foreign countries 
were prevented, as one of the favourite means 
of education among the Polish nobility, their 
literature exhibits hardly any books of travels. 



76 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 



Sixth Period. 

If the literature of a country could ever be 
regarded completely — if it was not in intimate 
connection with the position of its country — 
this period would have commenced about fifteen 
years previous to 1830. But while these fifteen 
years may be considered in some measure as the 
time of the fermentation of that spirit which 
broke out in 1830 ; this latter year, with the 
attempts made to annihilate the higher seats of 
learning, forms an epoch not only in Polish his- 
tory in general, but especially in its literature. 
The war, which called into exercise all the 
mental faculties of the nation, suspended con- 
sequently all literary activity ; but even during 
the more quiet period which immediately suc- 
ceeded, the dejected spirits of the nation are 
risible in the results of their intellectual pur- 
suits. The Universities of Warsaw and Wilna 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 77 

were broken up, and the valuable libraries of 
these institutions carried to St. Petersburgh. 
After some years a new University was founded 
at Kief. In a consistent manner the language 
and the peculiarities of the country were every- 
where checked, and attempts made to replace 
them by Russian customs and the Eussian lan- 
guage. There was indeed a suspense of mental 
life in Poland. 

A striking contrast, however, is observable in 
the spirit with which the numerous emigrants, 
especially in Prance, endeavoured to reanimate 
the dying embers. A deep enthusiasm pervades 
some of their efforts ; others are apparently dic- 
tated by mental excitement, or enveloped in a 
certain mystical atmosphere, which renders a com- 
mentary necessary in order to understand them. 
Meanwhile the department of belles-lettres in 
Poland itself, seems to have taken the same na- 
tional direction which characterizes the Eussian 
and Bohemian tendencies in modem times, 



78 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

many of the productions, within this category, 
being intended for the boudoir, or calculated to 
satisfy the immediate wants of the reading 
class. 



In conclusion, a few lines containing general 
remarks may not be out of place. 

Translations, of whatever description, must lose 
the original peculiarities and principal charms, 
but more so with regard to poetical productions. 
The animating power of national poetry appears 
to be gone. The genius of poetry, however, 
although dormant, is still living ; and nowhere, 
perhaps, is it more preserved than amongst some 
of the Slavic races; their pathetic or sen- 
timental songs, handed down from generation 
to generation, are exclusively original, and differ 
in that respect from the Teutonic or Gallic ro- 



SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 79 

mance. The feeling expressed in the Slavic songs 
is the effusion of natural heartfelt sensation, in 
all its different shades of affection ; never eccen- 
tric, but always natural, undisguised. 

For a more extensive view and full compre- 
hension of Slavic national poetry, the inquirer 
must divest himself of his habitual ideas ; he 
must adopt foreign conception and prejudice ; 
he will have to transport himself into a foreign 
clime, where the east and the west, the north 
and the south, blend in strange and striking 
amalgamation. The suppleness of Asia and the 
energy of Europe, the passive fatalism of the 
Turk and the active religion of the Christian, 
the revengeful spirit of the oppressed and the 
child-like resignation of him who submits, — all 
these seeming contradictions find an expressive 
organ in Slavic poetry, 

Surveying the fate of some of the Slavonic 
nations, whose names are scarcely mentioned in 
modern history; examining their ruins, dilapi- 



80 SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 

dated monuments, and other remaining vestiges, 
— all indicating a once high degree of civiliza- 
tion and even refinement, — impressions must be 
produced which not so soon vanish. The les- 
sons conveyed by such contemplations are of a 
profound character, exhibiting in strong colours 
u grandeur past and splendour lost I" 



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